Hotel Alpenhof Oberaudorf

I have a new favorite question. Where should we go this weekend? The only limits, how far are you willing to drive or where is the USO going? Since the autobahn still intimidates us a bit, we looked into the USO tour. Herrenchiemsee, one of crazy King Ludwig's castles, is on an island in Southern Bavaria. Turns out he idolized King Louis XIV and wanted a Versailles of his own, so he built one, sort of.

We learned a ...

... and had AuerBrau Helles from Rosenheim

Saturday was pretty overcast and not looking good for our planned hike up into the mountains. But apparently it was sunny up top above the cloud line so we decided to go as we wouldn't get another opportunity.
Drove out into the Alps and started at a point about 900m above sea level.
Hiked to the top of Wendelstein mountain which is 1838m above sea level. Weather was beautiful on ...

Stayed at a beautiful spot in Austria (Saalbach) with Hilly, Stu's old friend and new Father..actually felt sorry for him, the poor sod was knee deep in relatives, in laws, newly purchased crib and nappies, etc.....we stayed for afew days and it was neatly timed with the arrival home of new born Frankie. Hilly's place is 3 feet from a field of horses so Lauren was easily kept busy with feeding duties.

Stu tried ...

En route to the airport, Keith needed to do a bit of shopping for next week's guests so we paid a visit to Kufstein while he shopped there. Kufstein is a town with big history, owned by Bavaria in the middle ages but long one of Tirol's most northerly towns. The historical centre is hard to miss: an ancient castle perched atop a hill.

The lower Altstadt is cute but consists ...

... all of it but enjoyed what I could.

We lunched on snack bars and fruit after another big climb then did more challenging singletrack descents. I get a bit of vertigo on some of the trails where there's a steep drop to the side.

I was now on my 6th day of riding and when Keith asked whether I was up to another big climb to sample yet more singletrack descending ...

... br>
Back up for another run at Flying Gangster without falling off, but by now the weather was closing in and it looked as though I was pushing my luck to try another run.

On the way home, we stopped off and did some shopping. We stayed in and cooked Krapfern, slow-roast tomatoes and roast sausage, which was excellent, and yoghurt for dessert, all locally-produced except the toms.

They even have a special word for the rain that falls in Salzburg - it's something like Schnurlregen - but I'd have to find my Austrian book to check the spelling. Well, that was my fear for my holiday! And here we were, landed in Salzburg, and guess what? rain!

Luckily by the time we'd waited for the passengers from Glasgow to arrive so that our coach could leave it'd stopped raining - so it couldn't have been that special Salzburg rain that ...

... and a half tour. We were in a group with about 40 Americans on a tour. The guide was very good, and the castle was magnificent. Much nicer and more opulent than Versailles. Never finished and hardly lived in, but just amazingly over the top. Grabbed a lovely sache torte from the cafe. Ignored the horse and carriages, and walked back down the mountain, and caught the bus back to Fussen.

Back to our hostel to pick up the gear, then lunch at Nordsee say before catching the ...

We have spent the last 3 nights in the basement of LA House in Fussen which has been a good base and having access to internet has been a bonus. The basement room is huge and able to sleep 5 so it's been nice to spread out our junk and watch TV and sit on a proper lounge, although it's a bit cold at night. We left reluctantly and headed off to Innsbruck to track down some summer snowboarding for the BOSS. After the taste she got on top of Jungfrau, she is keen to learn how to spend ...

... saw several other little towns in the valley, with rivers winding their way through the mountains, and many other mountains across the way. I was left speechless. On our way up here, we stopped at the market to pick up a few items for lunch. We had some peaches, grapes, ham, cheese and rolls. You can have your fancy restaurants…this was the most beautiful place ever to have a meal.

We’ll turn in early tonight because tomorrow, we head to Vienna.